2 Years Later..

Today, let me update you on where our lives have taken us since I last "talked" with you! And for those new to the blog..let me introduce ourselves! Before you read this..you should read a post that I wrote not long before I left blogging. It's about the kids and titled "2010", and now here I am in 2010.. Where did the time go??

Jen (AKA Mom, Mommy, Babe, Doll, Independent Scentsy Consultant) -

In less than a month, I'll be 28. I started this motherhood journey, almost 6 1/2 years ago, and I still feel like I'm in training! My life is crazy, and wonderful, and stressful, and amazing. Everyday is a a mix of same ol' same ol' and some kind of new craziness! I've been awfully busy since last August when I started my Scentsy business. I have new customers calling or emailing me every day, and almost every single one becomes a hostess or a repeat customer! I am making a significant income every month, and it has helped take some of the financial stress off of my husband's shoulders. I'm now starting to look to expand my business by bringing on new team members to guide through their own business, and am really excited for the possibilities that will open up. I was hesitant to do that before now due to wanting to learn the business inside and out myself before I was responsible for someone else's training. But now I'm ready and am looking forward to the challenges and rewards that will bring.

W, (AKA Dad, Daddy, My Man) -

Still working hard. The love of my life, and the reason I manage to stay semi-sane!!




Hayden, Our 6 year old -

This little smarty pants will be starting 1st grade this August. Because I never put him in preschool, I was a bit worried about how he'd handle school. I shouldn't have been. He sailed through Kindergarten! Every time we spoke to his teacher she had so many great things to say about him. I couldn't have been more proud. His teacher, after doing the end of the year evaluations, discovered that he is 1 1/2 grade levels ahead in his reading and math skills and has recommended him for the "Gifted Program". He'll be tested for that in Aug. and if he scores in the "gifted" range, he'll meet with the teacher in charge of that program once a week for an hour to work on advanced projects to keep him from getting bored with his daily classroom work and to keep him working at the level he is capable of. He just finished t-ball for the Spring and is looking forward to flag football this Fall.




Tara, Our (almost) 5 year old -

I get to have my sweet girl home with me for one more year. Because her birthday is at the beginning of Sept., she'll be home one more year. In our district, you have to be 5 by Aug. 1st to begin Kindergarten. She's upset, I'm jumping for joy!! She's all sass these days and very opinionated! She's most definitely her mother's daughter. We struggled with her all winter on getting her totally potty trained. That's right..she was 4 and still pooping in her pants. But it was not for lack of knowing how. She became constipated one time when she was around 3, and because of the pain she had, she began holding her poop. So since then, she'd hold it, and then make messes in her pants. I found out online that this is not totally uncommon, so if this is something you are dealing with feel free to contact me and I would be more than happy to tell you how we overcame this horrendous ordeal!




Kayley, Our (almost) 3 year old -

Oh my how this little one has blossomed! She is now walking and talking, but yet still knows she's the baby of the family. She reached milestones a lot slower than the other two, and I'm thrilled about that. Since she is my last baby, I've enjoyed her staying "little" longer. She still lets me hold her, which by this age, the other two had totally outgrown. But unfortunately, she truly is a baby no longer. She's gotten so tall this summer. She is much more independent, and she has a personality all who own! She doesn't let the older kids boss her around, and I admire that about her.

I'm Back..Once Again

Well, I'm bringing Mamaritaville back to life!

I am no longer a coach with Beachbody. I'm actually now an Independent Consultant with Scentsy. Scentsy has given me so many opportunities, and I am not going anywhere..well except for UP, UP, UP within the company! I'll give more info on Scentsy throughout my posts, but for the most part..if you've never read this blog before, it's about my life as a mom!

Feel free to read through some of the past posts..they're old..but they're about about my family and me. Take time to get reacquainted or to get to know me. And I will start posting full time tomorrow with new updates & crazy stories!

It feels good to be back in the blogging world. I'm looking forward to getting to know new moms and to be reunited with "old" moms.

I raise my glass to you!

CHEERS!
Jen

The "Monster" Down The Hall

It's almost ten in the morning and I am still sitting here in my fleece "Frosty the Snowman" pajamas my husband got for my Christmas Eve gift. (No, I haven't been wearing them since last Wednesday!) I'm on my 6th or 7th cup of coffee, which I drink to give me a boost of motivation, and I still haven't moved from this spot. Two of the 3 kids are up and playing with one or another Christmas toy and the other is still in bed.

Why is it almost 10am and my darling baby girl is still sleeping. Because she is not sleeping through the night! She's almost a year and a half and has resorted back to her infant ways. It's exhausting. And when she wakes up..she refuses to go back to sleep without a bottle. A BOTTLE! The girl uses sippy cups and has been doing so for months now! But if you try to hand her one of those at 3am, she freaks. And if you do give her a bottle, but only give her water, she freaks. If you try to bypass the liquid all together and just hold her or pat her back...well I think there is a flash of evil that comes into her eyes.

I'm tired. My husband is tired. I can't seem to get motivated in the mornings to do anything other than sit and stare out the window. My husband has been late for work 2 of the 3 days he's gone in this week. The other two kiddos complain that Kayley is too loud at night. And where is Kayley in all of this misery? Sleeping in peacefully, while the rest of us are suffering.

Fun times, I tell ya!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Letters To Santa

My strange little children's letters to Santa:

Dear Santa Claus,

I want colorful bubbles and um, okay, and I also like a web shooter. Um, a new shirt, um, how about some new pants and some new pair of socks. I've been good this year. I like your reindeer.

Hayden

I want a friend for Bunny.

Yes, I do know how to type. This is just EXACTLY how his letter was narrated to my mom last weekend when they worked on Christmas lists while Will and I were out shopping. Hayden told me when I read the letter that he included that he had been good to make sure that Santa brought him toys. And "Bunny", he's Hayden's lovey that he sleeps with every night. Aww! Oh and out of everything on his list..not that there's much(could have saved a few bucks if I had seen this first!) he did get his Spiderman Web Blaster. It was what he has been asking for since LAST Christmas!

Dear Santa,

I want a kitchen thing, I want flowers, I want a kitty and drink juice. I want a pee in the potty doll and bubbles, and that's all I need.

Your Friend,
Tara

I want a princess.

Tara got her pee in the potty doll, of course. The rest..well the kitty is coming after the tree goes down (and she knows this) and I could probably give her a cup of juice on Christmas morning and tell her Santa left it for her!

Dear Santa Claus,

I want a bottle, a teddy bear and a giraffe and duck. She would really like, how about, a little book for her. How about a elephant and that's all. I've been really good this year.

Kayley (narrated to Grammy by Hayden & Tara)

Hmm...she got her teddy bear, and a couple of books. The rest...well I dont have a shovel big enough to clean up elephant poop! Oh and she really HAS been good this year...except the temper tantrums.


Now this is what I would like for Christmas:

Dear Santa (otherwise known as Will),

I would like to sleep in every day this upcoming weekend. I would like you to make dinner (this includes meal planning and grocery shopping) for one week. I want 1 hour to take bubble bath every evening (before the kids go to bed!) for a month. I would like a gift certificate to a fancy salon to have my hair cut, colored, and eyebrows waxed. Might as well throw in a massage while you're at it. But what I would like most of all...is a maid, a personal chef, and a nanny for 2 hours every afternoon so I can nap! That's all! I'm sure you can manage this!!

Love & Merry Christmas,
Jen

P.S. I'm getting you a carbon monoxide detector and a mailbox, if that helps you with finalizing your list!

Kisses For The Mailman

I think I need to do more selfless giving while my children are watching. You see, when we moved into this house we realized we didn't have a mailbox. Apparently the man who lived here before had always used a PO box. So..we have to install one. Our neighborhood is in a driving route, and to install a mailbox post, well it would be a bit of trouble with the frozen ground. So my husband talked to our mailman and he said he would just put our mail between our storm door and front door until we can get a box put in. Very nice of him!

Anyway, back to the selfless giving. So I was finishing some last minute Christmas cards and I made up a little goodie bag assortment of Hershey Kisses as a holiday "thank you" to our mailman. Well my kids were totally confused by this.

"What are you doing?"
"Is the mailman going to eat those?"
"Why does he get some of our candy?"
"I'm going to watch him out the window while he eats them!"
"Will he eat them on our porch?"
"What if he's not hungry?"

And it went on and on! Apparently, I am not doing a good enough job of teaching my children that it is the NICE thing to do to give people who are nice to us a little treat.

Hopefully today taught them a little something!

Although, right now they just seems confused and a little pissed that I've given away some of their candy!

Have A Good Day!

I was up, showered, dressed, with hair and makeup done by 7:05 this morning. This is about an hour earlier than usual. My husband leaves for work around 6:30am and the kids and I are usually up and getting dressed by 7:30-8am. Since moving into this house...lets just say I am now up as soon as my husband is out the door. Sometimes, like today, before that. Our bathroom is right next to our daughters' room and he always manages to wake up our 3 year old.

Now I know that he "tries" to be quiet. But I really think he could try harder. If he showered at night, that would eliminate a TON of noise. If he would not open the linen closet door to get his towel and washcloth out so loudly that it actually wakes me up and I'm down the hall, this would be a good thing. And if he wouldn't RIP OPEN the tape on boxes in the hall closet looking for his winter hat when he has a hood on his coat (like he did today) THAT would REALLY make me happy!

I was so mad this morning! I mean I know that he is up and going to work and I am still in bed so that's not totally fair. But if it's a problem for him and he wishes I would get up when he does, he just needs to ask. But waking up the kids so that I have to get up. Not cool. Of course I have no evidence that he does these things on purpose, but I have my suspicions. I personally don't mind getting up early. I'm not very pleasant in the mornings, but if there is hot coffee waiting for me in the kitchen, I can tolerate it (after about my 5th cup). But having a 3 year old awake before 7am, who is now refusing naps...well that just makes for a miserable day come about 2pm.

So Tara and I were up early. The other 2 slept in until after 8am. And Tara is already rubbing her eyes and crying behind the couch because "Hayden looked at her".

Thanks, honey! Hope YOU have a great day!

Greetings From Our New Home

Here I am? Were you wondering what happened?

We are all moved into our new home. We moved on the 6th. In the snow. It was hell. But so worth it!

We're getting unpacked and our house is coming together very nicely. We're decorated for Christmas. Major plus there! We just weren't "feeling it" until the tree went up. Now that we are we're freaked out because we have no gifts for the kids! I finally did sit down on Monday and order the items that either aren't available in the stores or were just too dang expensive. Amazon is my friend! That's for sure!

My 3 year old has been saying she wants a "pee in the potty doll" for weeks now. Unfortunately, the one she so desperately wants is $50 (at least) in the stores. It's the Little Mommy Gotta Go Doll. We just can not imagine spending $50 on something like that this year. But I found it on Amazon for $24.99 with free shipping and I snagged that real quick! Good thing because today it's up to $39.99! Strangely, it came in a box, without the actual packaging. Something about "frustration-free packaging" or whatever was enclosed. Made me a little mad, because I want that "WOW! LOOK WHAT I GOT!!" response when she opens it, instead of..."What? A cardboard box with a doll shoved in?" So now I have to decide if I want to set it up beside the tree unwrapped or set it up and cover it with some scrap wrapping paper. I just refuse to wrap her most wanted Christmas request up in a cardboard box...that's no fun!!

My 5 year old wants a Spiderman Web Blaster. I finally found the one I wanted and it actually was on sale! And I had a coupon code for 25% off! So cool! But I ended up paying OVER full price to get it here by Christmas because shipping was over $15. Oh well..it'll be worth it right?

I figure, we only have a few precious years where our kids have a FULL belief in the jolly red elf. If we can afford to grant their most wanted requests, it's kind of our duty. Besides, Christmas morning is so magical, and it's so much more magical to see their eyes light up when the find the treasured toy they've asked for hidden under the tree wrapped up beautifully and awaiting their greedy little hands to play with them for 5 minutes and totally forget they ever got it before the clock strikes 12 on New Years Eve!

Yes I'm PMSing!

I haven't blogged in a few days because...I haven't had anything to say. I still dont, but I am determined to blog, so please, bear with me.

We're still waiting to close on our house. We should be doing it this week. But it's looking like it may not happen, thanks to our bank lady who's handling everything. She's gone from office until tomorrow. Our appraisal is done and is just waiting on underwriting. It's been waiting since last Wednesday, but like I said, our bank lady is out of the office. Who needs Thursday-Tuesday off for Thanksgiving? That's what I'd like to know. Seriously, getting pissed here. I want to move. More importantly, I want to decorate for Christmas. Brown cardboard boxes are not nearly as beautiful as a Christmas tree. And if I hear one more person talk about how they got their tree up and decorated over the weekend, I am going to scream! I'm highly considering just breaking and entering into our new home and putting a tree up and decorating. Maybe moving in a few boxes..beds..who would really care? It's empty. It's just waiting for us. It's all about formalities now.

To ease our impatience we decided to hit Lowes over the weekend to check prices on the upgrades we want to incorporate into our new home. Things like paint, a new front door, shutters, old-fashioned screen doors, dishwasher, shower for the basement, curtains, carpet, laminate wood flooring, new cabinets. You know, just little stuff. I didn't realize just how much the "little stuff" would actually cost. I have just one room I want to carpet. Our family room. I want plush, sink your toes in carpet in there. The kind of carpet that when you lay on it, you fall asleep. Of course with carpeting like that you need the good pad underneath it. I found exactly what I wanted. I was so excited. It wasn't even the top of the line stuff. I looked lovingly into my husband's eyes. "Please, can we get this once we move in. It's so perfect! It shouldn't cost that much to do just one room." He looked back at me with a smile that said; You simple-minded little fool. Then he said, "To carpet that one room with this exact carpet and padding, with me installing it and not paying for labor, it would cost over $1200." That was a shock! I had budgeted $1200-$1500 to put laminate flooring in our kitchen, dining room, living room and hallway. I thought that was expensive! But over $1200 for one room. I might have to scale back a bit on my "dream carpet". Either that or look into robbing a bank!

So now I am frustrated that I can't move into my house. Frustrated that I can't decorate for Christmas. Frustrated that I don't have bottomless pockets of money to do all the upgrading and decorating to my house the FIRST DAY we move in. Frustrated that the only options for me right now is to wait, be patient, try not to bite people's heads off when they look at me, and learn how to save. Damn home-ownership!

The Christmas Box

I had decided that this year we would be skipping having the kids' Christmas pictures taken. With our move coming up, we really did not have the time to get into the photo studio in time to have the pictures back for putting in Christmas cards. Also, the cost always seems to be outrageous and we just can not afford it this year. But last night...I had a brainstorm!

The kids were playing in one of the empty moving boxes and it hit me! I would take a regular digital picture of them, in their Christmas clothes, and have 4x6's printed off from Walmart and THOSE would be our Christmas pictures. Plus it would double as a way to inform everyone of our change of address and save me postage having to send out another mailing! GENIUS!

So what follows is our picture taking adventures this morning:

Trying to get them to stop goofing off!

Trying to keep Hayden from touching Tara so she would stop getting majorly pissed off!

Stepford Children.

DISASTER!!! (Maybe this isn't worth the trouble??)

The FINAL product!! SO FLIPPIN' CUTE!!! (And only $7.19 for 45 prints! Cha-Ching!)

Blog Carnival For The Holidays!

You may have noticed the new button in my sidebar! Its for Tiff's Christmas Carnival! I am so excited for this. I had a blast with her Thanksgiving one! Everyone head on over and check it out!! Just click on the button in my sidebar!